Moving/changing garden with the new neighbour

TF03

Hi everyone, 
Apologies if this is in the wrong area. 
So, we recently completed on our new property and are cracking on with renovations etc. It's a grade 2 listed typical village end of terrace cottage. I say end of terrace, that is a bit of a technicality as we do have a house about a yard away from our external wall but still. Anyway, as with a lot of village houses the gardens over the years have been chopped, changed, right of ways put in etc. 
The current situation is that we, our immediate next door neighbour and then the next property along in the terrace all back out onto a courtyard owned by the middle cottage. We have to walk through this, then through a bit of their garden to get our own garden (which is fenced off so we have a defined area). The other neighbour also as to do this to access their own garden. Whilst we are perfectly happy with this and knew all this before buying it is a bit of a faff. 
Out of the blue, when chatting to the middle neighbour she mentioned about before we do any major changes to the house that she would be prepared to change the layouts of the garden so that we can all get more privacy and we can get direct access to our garden. 

I guess my questions are:
A, if we can come to agreements all round do we need to get solicitors involved? From what I've read online here: we can make changes ourselves and send them off?
https://www.gov.uk/your-property-boundaries/boundary-agreement-neighbour. None of us will be gaining or losing any square meterage. It's just repositioning of the boundaries. 
B, Listed properties include the outdoor space. Will changing the layout of the outdoor space (but not the size, style etc) require listed building consent?
C, Outside of the actual practical work of moving fences etc are there any other considerations I may have missed?

All of us seem to want to approach this sensibly and with as little fuss as possible. And with some thinking and planning all 3 properties could gain the privacy desired and direct access to their gardens.

Thanks all

Slithery

If any of you have mortgages then you'll need the lenders permission, this will necessitate the use of solicitors,.

FreeBear

Removing or replacing fences/walls may require listed building consent - It would be prudent to have a chat with the conservation officer at your local council before making any changes. You will all need to read the details of the listing to see what is covered and how it might impact on any proposed alterations.

greatcrested

Moving the boundaries will require

* a new Title Plan for each property. This needs drawing up (by a surveyor?) and submitting to the Land Registry.

* consent to the change by any mortgage lender(s) involved

* probably consent by the Conservation Oficer as a) the extant of the listed building(s) involved is changing and b) any change to the structures (boundary walls/fences) may require consent

It seems a sensible way to go, but I would not attempt to cut corners which could lead to problems down the road, either when one of you tries to sell, or if the Conservation Officer gets wind and enforces.

TF03

Thanks all. Very useful info and thoughts. 

Just out of curiosity. Why would our lender need to know the details of the change? As the actual square meterage of the gardens will remain the same, just the layout that shouldn't in theory negatively affect the values. If anything, I would imagine (and hope) it will perhaps increase them slightly with the direct access and privacy improvement?

greatcrested

Because there will be a change to the property Title Plan at the LR.

As the mortgage lender will have a Charge registered on the property, no change can be made without their consent.

The alternative is to do it all informally, with no change to the LR Title. Good luck trying to sell when the Title Plan no longer matches the actual boundary positions. Your buyer will have searching questions and concerns!

davidmcn

TF03 said:

Why would our lender need to know the details of the change? As the actual square meterage of the gardens will remain the same, just the layout that shouldn't in theory negatively affect the values.

They're not just going to take your word for it, are they? It's up to the lender to decide whether the changes adversely affect what they originally valued and did their due diligence on.